Did Operation Rescue Flower From Branch Ministries? -- Part II

by Anne Bower

In the May Body Politic,
we began the saga of Randall Terry, his
pastor Daniel Little, Pastor Little's non-profit corporation, Branch
Ministries, and Mr. Little's wholesale florist shop. To recap, Daniel
Little was one of Mr. Terry's early associates after Mr. Terry arrived
in Binghamton, NY in 1983. Mr. Terry became a lay-minister in Pastor
Little's church, the Church at Pierce Creek.

Two years before Mr. Terry arrived in Binghamton, Pastor Little had
incorporated a religious non-profit, Branch Ministries. In 1983,
Pastor Little's church, deeded land to Branch Ministries. In 1984,
Branch Ministries used that land to secure a $62,000 loan from a local
bank. By 1984, Mr. Terry had begun harassing patients and staff at
the first abortion clinic in Binghamton, Southern Tier Women's
Services.

Between 1984 and 1986, Branch Ministries sprouted three projects;
Project Life, headed by Mr. Terry, the Crisis Pregnancy Center, also
overseen by Mr. Terry, and the House of Life, aborted by an
uncooperative zoning board. In January 1986, Mr. Terry and a few
disciples had their first break-in at STWS, and Joseph Scheidler came
to town for his first visit. In June '86, Pastor Little's
congregation paid for a signature ad in the Binghamton newspaper
proclaiming Pastor Little's message that man must obey Higher Laws.
Mr. and Mrs. Terry were among the signers. These sentiments would
guide Mr. Terry on his paths of lawbreaking. The seeds of Operation
Rescue had been planted.

Branches Grow

The years between 1986 and 1988 were busy ones for Mr. Terry and Rev.
Little. On April 30, 1986, Mr. Terry took out his first DBA as Great
Buy Used Cars, headquartered at 1020 Front St. Vestal, NY, the site of
Rev. Little's wholesale florist business. (That address would host
other of Rev. Little and Branch Ministries projects.) Picketing and
break-ins at STWS had continued, and resulted in a non-jury trial in
August 1986 for Pastor Little, Cindy Terry and other anti-abortion
activists. Mr. Terry was using these attacks at the Binghamton clinic
to perfect and hone tactics he would export to the nation over the
next two years.

While Mr. Terry was happily practicing blockades, life also seemed to
be going well for Branch Ministries. In Nov. 1986, they paid off
their little $62,000 loan, taken out just two years before. A
commendable accomplishment for such a small congregation.

By 1988, Operation Rescue was organized and thriving, but Mr. Terry's
used car business was not doing so well. In March '88 he filed an
amended DBA, showing that the business was now located at 36 Main St.
in Windsor, NY, the small town where his new home was located (see
Cindy Terry: Real Estate Queen
in the May, 1994 Body Politic.)
The name was changed to Windsor Motors, but it had little effect on
the profit margin. Eventually, Mr. Terry dissolved the business.
There is no record to show if he reimbursed his fellow parishioners at
the Church at Pierce Creek who invested in that enterprise.

Branches Flower

The car dealership DBA was not the only one filed by Mr. Terry in
1988. On October 14th he filed two more, one for Project Life, the
other for Operation Rescue. (It should be noted that both of these
pieces of paper no longer exist at the Broome County Clerk's Office.
They are referenced in the computer system, but the actual paper has
disappeared from the files. These are publically accessible documents
and removal is a relatively easy process.) It is interesting that the
address for Project Life, PO Box 1180, was the first address for
Operation Rescue, and is still used today by Mr. Terry. There is no
record that Mr. Terry ever dissolved or amended his Operation Rescue
DBA.

How Mr. Terry in 1988, wound up Doing Business As an organization,
Project Life, that in 1985 was a division of a religious non-profit,
Branch Ministries, is a fascinating financial and legal question. On
his 1988 IRS tax forms, Mr. Terry listed among his occupations, "pro-
life activities for Operation Rescue and Project Life." Under
schedule A Line 14, he lists a total of $16,774 in gifts from
projects which include: Pierce Creek Gospel Chapel; Branch Ministries,
Inc.; House of Life (which never lived); March for Life; and Crisis
Pregnancy Center. All of these activities had become part of Mr. &
Mrs. Terry's personal income.

Branches Bear Fruit

Through 1988 to 1990, Operation Rescue blockades became common sights
across the nation. Randy Terry, leader, had succeeded in causing
quite a stir at the 1988 Democratic Convention in Atlanta. So much of
a stir, that in 1989 he found himself in a Georgia jail, shackled by
heavy fines and judgments. A benefactor paid the fine that got him
released from prison, but after that experience, Mr. Terry seemed to
loose his enthusiasm for incarceration.

In 1990, he reluctantly turned the reigns of Operation Rescue over to
Rev. Keith Tucci, and placed the Binghamton organization under the
care of Gary Leber, one of his long-time disciples and member of The
Church at Pierce Creek. One year later, Branch Ministries filed a DBA
announcing it was doing business as Christians In Action, (CIA), with
an office at 1020 Front St. -- Rev. Little's little florist shop.
Despite the address, Christians In Action actually operated out of
what was the original Operation Rescue headquarters on Chenango St. in
Binghamton. Today, Gary Leber heads CIA, still on Chenango St., half
a block away from the other Branch Ministries sprout, the Crisis
Pregnancy Center.

In February of 1992, Randall Terry reached a milestone -- his first
incorporation. He filed in Albany, NY a Certificate of Incorporation
for "Randall Terry Live", the name of his new daily radio call-in
show. Mr. Terry had finally achieved his boyhood dream of being in
show business. He located his studio in Windsor at 36 Main St., where
he used to operate Good Buy Used Cars.

Bitter Fruit

Meanwhile, Rev. Little and his wife suffered a loss when his father-
in-law, owner of the retail florist shop, passed on. Rev. Little was
named one of three trustees (all male) of the million dollar plus
estate, which was divided and managed for the six remaining daughters.
In October of that year, Rev. Little and the Church at Pierce Creek
sponsored their famous ad in USA Today,
warning that voting for Bill
Clinton is "a sin against God". This diatribe put the church under
investigation by the IRS.

While his pastor dabbled in the political waters, Mr. Terry jumped in
the pool by running against a local Congressman Boehlert, a popular
local Republican. The Terry campaign was desultory at best. He did
not even spend enough money to be required to fill out federal
campaign reports. Nevertheless, he did receive about 7,000 votes.

One month after the election, Branch Ministries branched out again,
this time filing a DBA for the All Women's Help Center. This new
Crisis Pregnancy Center was located in Vestal, near the new site for
STWS, conveniently up the road from the retail and wholesale florist
shops. The address on the DBA was that of Rev. Little's florist shop.
In February 1993, the florist shop and Branch Ministries were at it
again with a new DBA -- this one for New York Prison Ministries with
principle office at Rev. Little's florist shop. Branch Ministries
stated on the DBA that it intended to do business in Madison, as well
as, Broome County.

A Plum

Not to be outdone, in June 1993, Mr. Terry again filed a DBA's, this
time for Resistance Press, publisher of his third book. The address
on the DBA is that of his Harpursville residence (soon to be abandoned
for "the estate"). On the same day, he also filed a DBA for Windsor
Wheels with an address of 36 Main St., Windsor. This is the location
of Mr. Terry's radio station and former site of Good Buy Used Cars.
(Just this month, a sporty Toyota appeared for sale in front of the
radio station.)

A few days after filing these DBA's, Mr. Terry took a little trip to
Amsterdam Holland, where he may have visited with and finalized a deal
between himself and the noted Dutch Evangelist, Johan Maasbach. A
few months after that visit, the Johan Maasbach World Mission
Foundation, Inc. filed a change of address for its New York State
corporation, listing the new address as Holland. Subsequently, the
Terry's Harpursville house was on the market and the rest is history.

Will Branches Wither?

Right around the time of these events, Mr. Terry began soliciting
funds for a project he called The Resistance. In December, 1993 he
filed a DBA with that name, headquartered at the old Operation Rescue
building. The next month, Mr. Terry revealed his continued
association with the Church at Pierce Creek when, in a fund-raising
letter for The Resistance, he promised donors a parchment copy of the
anti-Clinton ad run in USA Today.
Enclosed with the fund-raising
letter was a pamphlet entitled,
The Church Under Attack: The IRS vs. Religious Freedom,
by Rev. Daniel J. Little, whose address was listed
at the wholesale florist shop. The pamphlet urges readers to protest
the IRS inquiry into the church's finances.

At this time, we have no knowledge if the IRS has completed its
investigation of the Church at Pierce Creek, or if they have begun one
on Mr. Terry or Branch Ministries. But this ten year history of
association certainly raises some interesting questions about whether
the seeds of Operation Rescue sprouted from Branch Ministries, planted
by the association between Randall Terry and Daniel Little on the
grounds of The Church at Pierce Creek.